At a joint press conference today held in the Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, both President Obama and Prime Minister Abe referred to the importance of student exchange and public diplomacy.  Here are quotes from the press conference; for the full text of the press conference, please see:    Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Abe in Joint Press Conference.
 
PM Abe:  Going forward, what supports the alliance are the youth in both of our countries.  To further enhance exchanges between youth I have told Barack of our plans to send 6,000 Japanese students to the United States this fiscal year.  The Japan-U.S. alliance is more robust than ever before.
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President Obama:  Finally, I’m pleased that we continue to deepen the extraordinary ties between our people, especially our young people, like the Japanese students that I’ll be meeting later today.  And I’m proud to announce that we’re launching a new program that will help even more Japanese students come to the United States to improve their English-language skills and gain valuable experience working in American businesses and organizations.  And that’s part of our effort to double student exchanges by 2020 — bonds among our young people that can bring us closer together for decades to come.
So, Prime Minister Abe, thank you for your friendship, your partnership, and the progress that we’ve made together.  I want to thank you and the people of Japan for being such extraordinary allies.  Standing together, I have no doubt about what our nations can achieve.  So as you say here, ganbarou.  Thank you.